A regular reader of this column, torn between his traditional belief and what some West-based scientists have to say about subtle realities of life, has sent a long questionnaire. let me answer them one-by-one. For, they relate to fundamentals of life, rooted to the recently concluded, ‘Can we shape our destinyIJ’ series.

First, he seeks guidance on why some West-based scientists maintain that “there is nothing like a ‘soul’ in existence and there is no rebirth. For them, life-sparks come out of some battery like device working within us, which when loses charge, or when meets with an accident, a person is dead. Given a certain condition, the device involuntarily comes into play, the way seed-tree-fruit-seed cycle run.”

Well, people are within their right to carry their own perception. But I can’t help those who subscribe to a faith, which does not believe in rebirth, and in support thereof try to provide it with a half-cooked scientific cover. Again, less said the better for those conversant with one particular discipline of science, and yet trying to behave as self-acclaimed arbiters of human destiny.

I have a question for them. If a battery-like device becomes dysfunctional during an accident, how is it that all victims of the accident do not dieIJ Another related question which arises: What is that force which finds connection and then responds to a particular and certain environmental conditionIJ A seed kept in store remains inert. But when sown in earth mass, it immediately finds connection and then progressively grows into a fruit bearing tree. It implies the handiwork of some unseen force, which carries the essence of life from one form to the other.

let me make it clear that a human being is not just a mobile mechanical-equipment. What is important to understand is how man’s intelligent functionalities work. Here again, the play of some unseen driving force — Consciousness or Soul as we understand in Vedantic terms — becomes imperative, which when available, you are alive and which grants the ‘Power of Knowing’, vital to mind’s varied dynamic functionalities.

Those who care to follow true scientific spirit, are expected to be open enough to look at what Nobel laureate John Eccles, an acclaimed neurologist, has found out through study on near-death patients. What comes out is that “human consciousness is not located anywhere in the physical body, although it uses the body as vehicle for operations. It can also function independent of the body. It was found that human consciousness remains functional despite clinical death of a patient to validate that death is not the end.”

Evidently, if consciousness can temporarily move away from the body of those who had near-death experience, it could transmigrate into other body as well. I have personally interacted with two such people who had undergone a near-death experience. They shared watching their own dysfunctional body and wailing near and dear ones, but by themselves, they could not react or respond in visible terms.

let us now examine the issue in energy perspective. Modern theoretical physics believes that energy streams that came into play, following the Big-Bang event, led to excitation of the creation chain, which progressively evolved into the manifest plural world with all its enormity and diversity. So, everything that exists is nothing but a manifestation of play and interplay of nature driven energy-orchestra.

We all know that energy and matter are inter-convertible. And with the advent of quantum physics, it has been established that when seen at sub-atomic level, a being with bone and flesh is nothing but an inseparable web of vibrating energy patterns, all sourced to nature. To quote an Australian physicist in this context: “To a naïve realist, this world is a collection of objects.

To a quantum physicist, it is an inseparable web of vibrating energy patterns, in which no one component has a reality independent of the entirety, and included in that entirety is the observer.” And energy never gets destroyed but changes form, as would the theory of conservation of energy stand. So, reincarnation would literally mean change of one energy-platform to the other. Even if reincarnation could not be proved in visible parameters, it is very much conceivable and it will be unfair to term it as unscientific.

Now moving on to empirical evidence, there has been organised study on numerous cases of those who are able recall past life memories particularly in their early childhood. Their accounts were checked upon and found to be true to prove a continuum between successive lives.

The issue continues.

The writer is an astrologer, vastu consultant and spiritual counsellor. Write to him at G-5, Basement, Jungpura Extension, New Delhi 14 Tel: 9818037273/ 24310031 Email: pioneerqueries@bharatastro.com Website: www.bharatastro.com